RANCHO CUCAMONGA >> Manager Bill Haselman is normally a pretty laid-back guy, something his Rancho Cucamonga Quakes appreciate. But like everyone, he has his moments. One of those came in 1993 when he was playing for the Seattle Mariners and got hit by a pitch from the Orioles’ Mike Mussina, one at-bat after he had homered.

“It was just one of those things that happened in the moment. I can’t even explain it, but that’s part of baseball,”

Haselman said.

“I don’t think anything would have happened if the pitch wasn’t up here,” he added, pointing to his head.

Most of Haselman’s players have seen the video and say it is just evidence of their skipper’s competitive nature.

“He is very open and easy to talk to, but he doesn’t like to lose,” Quakes hitting coach Mike Eylward said. “He’s very competitive.”

Players agree.

“He can get pretty fired up in a heartbeat. He can go from 0 to 100 in a second when he needs to,” infielder Tyler Ogle said.

Haselman, 49, is in his first year managing the Los Angeles Dodgers’ California League affiliate. His Quakes are a Cal League-best 25-10 at home and in first place in the South Division. He will manage the California League squad in the annual California-Carolina League All-Star game on Tuesday at Loan Mart Field.

His only other experience in an all-star game came in 2005, when he was a bullpen coach for the Red Sox and was part of the staff for the major league game in Detroit.

While the players are looking to work their way up the minor league ladder, it is much the same with the coaching staff. Haselman admits the thought has crossed his mind, but it isn’t something he dwells upon.

“I think we all think about that, but it isn’t anything you have control over,” he said. “I love the game and being able to work with younger players.”

Haselman played 13 years in the major leagues with four organizations, most notably the Red Sox and Mariners.

Now he is calling the shots as manager for his third California League affiliate. He was in the league for the first time in 2010, heading the Rangers’ entry in Bakersfield.

Then in 2013, he guided the Angels’ affiliate, the Inland Empire 66ers, to the league championship, only to be dismissed by that organization soon after the season ended. He termed that dismissal “confusing” given what his team accomplished in beating the Lancaster JetHawks (Astros) and San Jose Giants, who had more highly touted prospects and looked tough to beat, at least on paper.

Haselman said the key was his team’s unique chemistry, something he sees in this year’s Quakes team. He still keeps in touch with several of those players, even though he is with a different organization.

Eylward says that’s a reflection of the skipper.

“When you get teams like that, it is because of the manager,” he said. “When you have teams like that where everyone gets along and is on the same page, good things happen on the field.”

Haselman wasn’t unemployed long as DeJon Watson, then the Dodgers’ farm director, came calling last year and asked him to direct the Midwest League affiliate in Great Lakes.

Being back in the California League this season was sort of a homecoming. Not only is he familiar with the league, but he has in-laws in San Marino. It is also an easy trip for wife Tracy and children Tyler (17) and Koko (14), who are in Washington but expected to join him in Southern California later this month.

He has been well-received by his players, many of whom played for him last year in Great Lakes.

“He has got so much baseball knowledge, more than we’ll probably ever have,” said outfielder Brian Wolfe, who also had Haselman as a coach for a brief time while he was at the University of Washington. “He really lets you just be yourself.”

The Southern California landscape is also familiar because Haselman is a product of UCLA, where he served as Troy Aikman’s backup at quarterback on the football field and the understudy to Todd Zeile in baseball.

The only scholarship offer he had was from Nevada-Reno, but he opted to walk on at UCLA instead because the coaches at Reno didn’t want him to play both sports.

It really didn’t work out as he had hoped. The presence of Aikman meant he never had a chance on the football field. He ended up getting selected by the Texas Rangers in the first round of the 1987 draft, which was his junior year when he was no longer playing behind Zeile.

“It was one of my few regrets,” he said. “I loved football, too, and wonder what would have happened if I really gave football a chance.”

Michelle Gardner has covered high school sports and local colleges for the Daily Bulletin and Sun since 2002. She previously covered a wide variety of sports from the high school level to the professional ranks in Florida with tenures at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Naples Daily News and the Fort Myers News-Press and is graduate of the University of Florida.